Monday, October 13, 2008

BAR HARBOR, Maine — A cruise ship passenger was arrested Thursday as he walked off the Caribbean Princess for being in the country illegally by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Saul Canizales-Osuna, 57, of Albuquerque, N.M., was charged with re-entry after deportation.

A citizen of Mexico, he appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk in federal court in Bangor. He agreed to be held without bail pending the outcome of his case.

In a routine review of the advance passenger information system, customs officials discovered the day before the ship docked that Canizales-Osuna was deported in June 1998 because he was considered to be an aggravated felon. He was convicted in June 1995 in Los Angeles for possession and-or sale of methamphetamine and of assault with a firearm, according to court documents.

Those convictions barred him from reentering the U.S.

He served about three years in prison and was deported on June 9, 1998, according to the affidavit filed Friday in U.S. District Court. He allegedly told ICE agents Thursday that he returned to the U.S. at the Tijuana, Mexico crossing the day after he was deported using his resident alien or green card as identification.

Immigration officials apparently mistakenly returned the card to Canizales-Osuna instead of keeping it when he was deported 10 years ago.

Court documents do not explain what he has been doing since then or give details about why he was on the cruise ship.